renaud verlaque - Nov 5, 2004 12:44 pm (#396 Total: 400)
"The game looks great ... The mechanics are smooth and play quickly, but
capture the feel of the period. For anyone looking for a great
Napoleonic era game, this is a must have" Mark Herman re Age of Napoleon
(Phalanx)
A cool AAR from rpg.net
1805 : Napoleon rushes across Germany to crush Mack's Austrian army at
Ulm. Following this defeat, Archduke Charles and general Kutusov try to
lure Napoleon in a trap near Vienna. Unfortunately, their manoeuvre fail
when typical Russian HQ miscalculations prevent Buxhowden from showing
up on Napoleon's rear, leaving Charles and Kutusov to be routed by
Murat's cavalry. Its army scattered and its capital occupied, Austria
capitulates.
1806 : Despite considerable pressure by pro-French and pro-Russian
parties, the Prussian government decides to stay neutral in this
conflict. While the British army is happily burning down Washington and
Russia is mobilizing at an unprecedented speed near Moscow, Marshal
Soult conquers Pommerania. Napoleon seems to be enjoying a quiet stay in
Vienna. In the worst winter seen in years, thousands of Russian soldiers
die due to inappropriate quarters.
1807 : Thanks to William Pitt's personal intervention, Prussia joins the
Coalition. Alas for the British, Napoleon reaps the benefit of its
efforts in Austria as Vienna enters the French alliance. At everybody's
surprise, Portugal also joins the Coalition. A secret report by Fouché
pointing to Talleyrand's double-dealings as the reason of the Portugese
decision is ignored by the French governement. French reaction is
extremely swift : Marshal Soult enters Prussia in the first days of the
spring and crushes Braunschweig's army in Ostprussien. Napoleon didn't
even bother to deal with the Prussian paper tiger personnaly. Stunned by
the Prussian defeat and waiting for British reinforcements, the Russian
army stays in Moscow. Meanwhile, Archduke Charles leads a
Franco-Austrian army in the conquest of the Napolitan Kingdom, defeating
a British-funded Napolitan force in the process. Prussia capitulates as
French troops enter Berlin.
1808 : Austrian reforms its army under Radetzky's direction. A Spanish
army led by general Blake conquers Portugal despite strong resistance by
Beresford's Portugese. Napoleon decides to deal with the Russians once
and for all and starts concentrating the Grande Armée in Poland, only to
be handed his first defeat by general Winter. Russians are still waiting
for British help, but the Royal Navy has'nt managed to get rid of the
French fleet yet.
1809 : British diplomacy tries to make up for Nelson's lack of results
as Pitt talks Spain out the French alliance and Hannover becomes
neutral. Again, Fouché's accusations against Talleyrand are dismissed as
personal animosity. Napoleon gathers new troops in Poland to replace
last winter's losses and enters Russia. He's at Smolensk by June and
Kutusov is waiting for him before Moscow. As Napoleon starts his march
to Moscow, a small Russian-funded Swedish army led by Charles XIII
leaves Stockholm and manages to reach Westphalen, bypassing all French
armies ! In July, Napoleon and Kutusov meet west of Moscow. The battle
stays indecise until the afternoon when a timely engagement of the Guard
wins the day for the French. Napoleon enters Moscow, Russia is beaten.
Meanwhile, undaunted by (or unaware of) Russia's defeat, Charles XIII
continues his daring raid and August finds him besieging Paris ! It
takes Murat to force him back after an epic and very close battle
decided by a last massive charge from the French cavalry. Napoleon and
Alexander I sign a peace treaty in october.
1810 : Britain stands alone, all the more since Napoleon has managed to
browbeat Prussia in the French alliance in the wake of his Russian
victory and Talleyrand has talked Hannover back in the French lap
(Fouché is reported to be 'extremely depressed'). In march, the French
govenrnement forces the implementation on the Continental System on all
his allies/conquests, creating much dissent in the process. At last, in
april, Nelson routs the French fleet at Trafalgar. 'About time ! ' is
King George's only comment. Napoleon goes back to Paris, Davout conquers
Sweden and Danemark while Wellington invades Portugal, soon joined by
general Moore.
1811 : Following the Austrian emperor's premature death, Napoleon has
his brother Joseph appointed as emperor of Austria. He also has the
thrones of various Eurpean minor countries distributed to relatives of
his. Despite these outrages, the continental system and the massing of
French troops at the border of neutral Spain, continental Europe shows
no sign of unrest. Londoners start whispering that Mr Pitt's spymaster,
lord Blackadder, may not be up to his task... Galvanized by his
diplomatic successes , Napoleon conquers Spain and Portugal in two switf
strokes, sweeping aside Anglo-Spanish troops. Only occupied Spain's
neutrality prevents a French decisive victory.
1812 starts with another telling blow for the British : thanks to
Napoleon's diplomatic talents, Spain signs an alliance treaty with the
Empire. England has to get a foothold on the continent if they want to
avoid a disastrous peace. In August, Wellington lands in Pommerania in a
effort to draw French attention. After an heroic march across Europe
where he managed to bypass three French Armies, he's caught in december
by Napoleon himself somewhere in Dalmatia and defeated after a very
close battle (Napoleon having lost half his army to march attrition
before the fight). But his sacrifice hadn't been vain : focused on
getting him, the French didn't react in time to Moore's invasion of
Danemark . This one precious ally on the continent allows the British to
deny supremacy to the French. At 2 a.m. the game stops with a French
marginal victory.
Comments
It was my opponent's first game. As shown by this report, he had no
trouble putting up a very good performance even with a superficial
reading of the rules. The ease with wich newbies can get into the system
is one of its greatest quality. We tried the optional rules designed to
reduce card luck. They came in extremely handy since every rule applying
to the Coalition was invoked. They didn't prevent the French player from
keeping his advantage but effectively avoid my being beaten for not
having drawn/being denied essential cards (Britannia for instance).
Likewise, the rule forbidding diplomatic actions against more than one
major contry per phase prenvented the French player from having the
tables turned on him by my lucky draws (diplomatic cards tended to crop
up by pairs in my hand). The rule I have some reservations about is the
automatic Continental System rule : its conditions seem a little too
easily met to me.
renaud verlaque - Nov 5, 2004 12:46 pm (#397 Total: 400)
"The game looks great ... The mechanics are smooth and play quickly, but
capture the feel of the period. For anyone looking for a great
Napoleonic era game, this is a must have" Mark Herman re Age of Napoleon
(Phalanx)
And another...
1805, Austria is crushed in the field and our guys sit in Vienna
unopposed. But do the men in white surrender? No. What's more, Nelson
sends our fleet at the bottom of the sea and winter in Vienna is
particularly harsh.
1806 begins with Spain turning neutral and Austrians learning from their
mistakes and reforming their army. Things look quite bad from the french
side, and Nappy starts a strategic withdrawal (heh!) towards the
homeland, in order to thwart the english expeditionary corps under Hill.
Meanwhile Russians have been busy taking Denmark and threatening
northern Germany.
Napoleon finds himself facing the Coalition army at the Franco-German
border. He beats them soundly, disperses the remnant, occupies Vienna
and this time forces the surrender of Austria. Of course, at this time,
the Prussians enter the dance and summon whatever overrated forces they
have. So, of course, the Ogre has to beat them as well and send them
back, but this time again the enemy decides to offer no surrender.
Things become a bit blurry at this point, but Spain turns to the
Coalition side, Napoleon comes back to France just in time to trash an
Ibero-British invasion (the cowardly Brits of course sacrifice the
regiments of their allies). Meanwhile, the Prusso-Russian army is busy
turning over small countries and threatening France itself. Ney,
dispatched to the spot in haste , gets a brilliant, but costly victory.
Things start turning the french way, as Russia, then Prussia become
neutral again, and England faces alone the might of the Emperor (it must
be 1810 or so by now). Unfortunately at this point, between the many
battles and attrition, the best troops of the french army are now
history.
So, at one point, the former french minor allies have turned to the
Coalition, but Napoleon faces a numerically inferior army in Spain.
Instead of rallying the minors, our hero decides to squash the annoying
redcoats once and for all (and who would have done different?), but it
was a trap and the whole country rises in a treacherous insurrection
just after offering an hypocritical surrender. Of course at this point,
Prussia rebuilds a semblance of army and Austria becomes active again.
Once again, Napoleon has to rush off in another direction and save the
day, while the Brits prosper in the South. A few diplomatic turn-arounds
later, the bloddied french army roams France in 1814, defeating each
Coalition army but not making any real progress, despite a last-ditch
effort at retaking minor allies.
The game ends in the fall 1815, with a last french battle near Paris
that finally turns in a defeat (almost the first one for Napoleon). At
this point, there was no way to avoid a defeat anyway, the french army
was bled white, with no more reinforcements available, and the Coalition
was only marginally better.
A very hard-fought game, where superior card play by the Coalition was
balanced by his atrocious luck in battle (as it should). Each offensive
of the Coalition was repulsed with heavy losses until the french army
was reduced to a core of veterans unable to spread out to protect
anything beyond Paris. Very appropriate and very dramatic.